Lowest Spread Forex Brokers In Canada (Updated 2024) (2024)

Written byJustin Grossbard

Edited bySean A'Hearn

Fact Checked byLaura Wolfe

What Changed?

Each month we update average spreads data published by the brokers the retail brokers lose %

Fact Checked

We double-check broker fee details each month which is made possible through partner paid advertising. Learn more this here.

We recommend OANDA as the best for a low-spread standard account, especially for beginners. The broker has no-commission Standard accounts with an average spread of one pip on EUR/USD, one of Canada’s lowest.

This makes it an excellent choice for those just starting forex trading, as it minimizes trading costs. With a score of 71/100, the highest we’ve scored in Canada, the broker stands out as a low-cost and beginner-friendly option.

OANDA offers the lowest no-commission spreads

OANDA offers some of the lowest no-commission spreads that we’ve seen for Canadian-regulated brokers.

As such, we gave OANDA our highest rating as the best overall IIROC-regulated broker and the top ten worldwide. Based on our methodology to test a broker, OANDA scored an excellent 71/100.

Key Strengths:

• Low spreads from 0.6 pips
• Partial trade sizes
• Advanced trading tools for MT4
• A wide range of currency pairs

OANDA has Competitive Spreads with their Standard Account

The standard account is the only trading account available with OANDA, which offers a spread-based pricing model with no commissions.

You can trade forex with low spreads from as low as 0.6 pips, which is competitive for a commission-free account.

An added benefit if you trade at least $10m in volume each month, is that OANDA offers the Elite Trader Program. This is a standard account add-on, but you get extra benefits based on your trading turnover. The program’s main advantage is that you can lower your trading costs by up to 34%, further reducing the spread cost.

OANDA’s Great Platform Experience

OANDA has a choice of three impressive forex trading platforms that you can access from your desktop, mobile app, or through your web browser. The OANDA Trade platform is a good choice for beginners who want access to low trading sizes and a user-friendly interface to get started with.

If you like to automate your trades, then the MetaTrader 4 has Expert Advisors, then this trading platform would be best for you. Then there is TradingView, which has an extensive range of technical indicators and screeners – so if you are a price action trader, then TradingView is our top pick for you.

The OANDA Trade platform is very user-friendly, with a simple screen showing the charts and the financial products available on the platform. We recommend the OANDA Trade platform to beginners because you can use partial lot sizes. This is where you can trade CFDs with a unit size of just one (which is 0.00001 lots).

With OANDA’s TradingView platform, I particularly like the Forex Screener tool, which allows you to specify your forex trading criteria to find forex pairs that match your requirements. For example, you can input that you are looking for forex pairs that have traded above the daily high and are currently trading within the RSI range of 20-40 in the last 1-hour timeframe. If there are any results, it will return the matching forex pairs to you so you can perform further analysis. This is helpful because it can reduce your analysis time while scanning other pairs you may never have considered.

OANDA has a Good Range of Trading Products

OANDA is a good choice if you are a forex or commodities trader. They offer a range of 120+ trading products over six different markets, available to trade with their low spreads.

What I liked about the trading products on offer is that you can trade CFDs like gold and silver with a different currency pair outside the common crosses. So, instead of the normal XAU/USD or XAG/USD available with most platforms, OANDA allows you to trade different crosses like XAU/JPY or XAU/CAD. This will enable you to take advantage of the metals markets through more volatile trading forex pairs, which is excellent for commodity traders who want a little more exposure to risk.

Our Verdict on OANDA

Overall, we rated OANDA as the best forex broker for low spreads with no commission. With a minimum spread of 0.6 pips, it places OANDA as one of the lowest in Canada. The broker also has a wide range of forex and commodity products and a good trading platform experience.

View OANDA ReviewVisit OANDA

FOREX.com is a decent broker with low spreads that make trading more cost-effective. You can enjoy average spreads as low as one pip on EUR/USD and even lower average spreads of 0.1 pips on RAW spread accounts. While there is a $7 commission per lot for the RAW account, it’s in line with industry standards.

FOREX.com has an impressive range of 3,000+ markets, including 80+ forex pairs and multiple trading platforms like MT5 and TradingView.

FOREX.com has RAW spreads from 0.0 pips

If you want the lowest spreads, then you should choose a RAW account, and Forex.com offers the RAW Pricing account for Canadian traders. You get access to spreads from as low as 0.0 pips, which is suited if you automate your trades frequently. This can help reduce your spread costs and ensure your executions are at the lowest price.

Key Strengths

• Wide range of currency pairs (80+)
• Tight RAW spreads from 0.0 pips
• Good range of trading platforms

FOREX.com has the RAW Pricing Account

The RAW pricing account is where you can find the lowest spreads with Forex.com. These spreads start from as low as 0 pips, which are tight and ideal if you require more precision with your trading entries.

Although the RAW pricing spreads are competitive, you do have to pay a commission to trade on this account. This is the tradeoff for tighter spreads. Unfortunately, FOREX.com charges expensive commission fees of $14 round-turn per lot, double the industry standard of $7 per round turn.

If you are an active trader with a lot of trading volume, you can reduce your trading costs by up to 15% by participating in the Forex.com Active Trader program. You can qualify for the benefits if you fund your account with $10,000 when signing up or when you do a $50m turnover a month.

You also have the option of FOREX.com’s Standard account, which is a spread-based account. Average spreads for the top 5 major currency pairs with the Standard account are 1.66 pips, which is slightly higher than the industry average of 1.52 pips.

FOREX.com has over 80 Currency Pairs to Trade

Forex.com has a good selection of trading products available. The broker offers CFD trading on over 3,000 different products. When it comes to choosing a currency pair to trade, Forex.com has an extensive collection of 80+ forex pairs (one of the most offered by a Canadian broker). You get access to the typical majors and minor pairs, but it’s the range of exotic pairs that would interest you if you like to capture higher volatility trading opportunities.

FOREX.com Has RAW spreads on TradingView

If you want a platform that looks clean and easy to trade with while still accessing RAW spreads, you can use the TradingView platform. It comes with a host of top features like highly customizable trading charts with 110+ trading indicators built in. Unlike MetaTrader 4, you can also sync your trading charts to the cloud to analyze the markets on any device (without having to reapply the technical indicators like support and resistance levels on your mobile device).

Our Verdict on FOREX.com

FOREX.com offers an impressively low RAW Pricing account that allows you to enter trades from 0.0 pips. Not only do you get tight spreads with the account, but you also get access to a broker that allows you to trade any currency pair you choose, with the most extensive collection available on this list. For these reasons, Forex.com is our top pick for the best RAW spread broker.

We like FXCM as it offers a decent range of trading platforms specializing in different tools.

With TradeStation 3.0, you can access improved research tools like the Economic Insights tool, providing valuable data for your trades. On the other hand, MetaTrader 4 excels in technical charting, helping you analyze market trends effectively.

We were impressed with its RAW spreads, averaging just 0.2 pips on EUR/USD. However, it’s important to note the $7 commission per lot traded, which is standard in the industry.

Friedberg Direct Powered By FXCM with ECN-Style Execution and Pricing

Friedberg Direct (powered by FXCM) offers fast execution speeds and low spreads with its ECN-style trading accounts. If you are a high-volume forex trader, then you should consider this broker because it provides commission discounts on its Active Trader account.

Key Strengths:

• Top selection of trading products
• Has ECN-style executions and pricing
• A good choice of trading platforms is available

Two ECN-Style Trading Accounts

Friedberg Direct (powered by FXCM), offers two ECN-style, commission-based trading accounts, which is unique for a Canadian broker. Both accounts offer low spreads (from as low as 0.2 pips), but commissions do vary. At CAD$14 per lot, round trade, the CFD account’s commissions are very expensive against the industry average. Although the spreads are low, we’re not a fan that you need a minimum of $5,000 to open the account.

However, if you are an high-volume trader, then Friedberg Direct with FXCM can become a competitive broker if you meet the requirements to open the Active Trader account. While the requirements are high, starting with a deposit of $25,000 and a monthly trading volume of 500 lots, you will get discounted commissions that can go as low as CAD$6 per lot round trade, making FXCM a reasonable broker.

Our Verdict on Friedberg Direct powered by FXCM

Overall, we can only recommend Friedberg Direct (powered by FXCM) to experienced forex traders who can meet the Active Trader account requirements and benefit most from the ECN-style trading accounts. With such a high minimum deposit, we feel that there are better brokers in this list that offer low spreads with good execution, like TMGM.

What makes AvaTrade an easy recommendation is its low fixed spreads for day trading. The broker’s tight fixed spreads, starting at just 0.6 pips on EUR/USD and no commission. This is perfect if you day trade as you’ll never be charged extortionate spreads during volatile markets again, allowing you to trade the markets no matter the volatility.

You can trade AvaTrade’s decent range of markets with various platforms, including AvaTrade WebTrader, MetaTrader 4, and MetaTrader 5.

Friedberg Direct Powered by AvaTrade has Stable Spreads

Friedberg Direct (powered by AvaTrade) has a different platform and execution than the FXCM setup. For one thing, the trading costs are lower with fixed spreads, and they have a better range of trading products. If you are an algo trader and want access to fixed spreads in Canada, then AvaTrade is our recommendation.

Key Strengths:

• Competitively low fixed spreads
• Good risk management with AvaProtect
• Top selection of trading products

Friedberg Direct Powered by AvaTrade Technology is a partnership between the CIRO-regulated Friedberg Direct and global forex trading broker AvaTrade. As a Canadian trader, you sign up with Friedberg Direct while AvaTrade provides the clearing house for your trades.

Friedberg Direct (powered by AvaTrade) has Low Fixed-Spreads

AvaTrade only offers the Standard account with fixed spreads from 0.6 pips on EUR/USD and no commission on trades. When you compare them with other brokers in Canada, such as their FXCM counterparts, the broker offers a more cost-effective way of trading. With FXCM, trading costs will be roughly $14.20 per trade ($14 per lot round trade + 0.2 pips minimum spread) on EUR/USD vs. a $6 per lot round trade (with 0.6 pips fixed spread) with AvaTrade.

We’re surprised that AvaTrade offers fixed spreads at such a competitive level. Typically, fixed spreads are much wider than variable spreads to ensure the broker can cover volatile trading times.

You can take advantage of the fixed spreads if you are an algo trader because AvaTrade offers MT4 as a trading platform so that you can automate your trades with fixed spreads. You could benefit from this because your EAs may trade during volatile times (during news announcements), which could impact your performance. At least with fixed spreads, you’ll pay the same no matter how volatile the forex market gets.

Our Verdict on Friedberg Direct powered by AvaTrade

AvaTrade doesn’t have the lowest spreads in Canada, but it does have the best fixed spreads, which are very competitive compared to most brokers. This makes it our recommendation for the best broker with low fixed spreads.

CMC Markets is a top choice for low spreads, plus an extensive selection of over 330+ markets. If you like to find volatility in the FX markets, you’ll find plenty of currency pairs to trade.

The standard account spreads averaged 0.5 pips on EUR/USD, and RAW average spreads go as low as 0.0 with a reasonable $2.25 commission per lot. CMC’s NGEN platform simplifies trading with advanced charting and handy tools like the pattern scanner to automate analysis.

CMC Markets has over 10,000 trading products available

CMC Markets is a top choice with low spreads in Canada for a vast selection of online trading products. With over 10,000 products across a wide range of markets, CMC Markets is a low spread forex broker with the best range of CFD products. CMC Markets is ideal for experienced forex traders who want to capture more volatility and trading opportunities with an extensive range of CFD products.

Key Strengths:

• Excellent range of trading platforms
• Largest selection of financial instruments
• Guaranteed stop-loss order (GLSO)

Trade a Wide Range of CFD Products with CMC Markets

CMC Markets has over 10,000 trading instruments available at low forex spreads. This is one of the largest ranges of CFD products available to Canadian traders.

We’re impressed with this selection because CMC Markets offers over 330 currency pairs to trade with, which is one of the widest ranges of CFD currency pairs available. Not only that, CMC Markets has over 70 indices, 90+ commodity markets, and over 10,000 share CFDs to trade from.

If you are a trader who wants to speculate on different markets, then CMC Market is a solid choice for you.

Ultra Low Standard Account Spreads

Not only do you have a choice of markets, but the spreads from CMC Markets are low.

You can expect low spreads from 0.0 pips on the EUR/USD if you use the broker’s FX Active account, where you also pay a very low trading commission of $5 per lot round-trade.

If you don’t want to pay any trading commission, then the standard account starts from 0.7 pips on EUR/USD, which is very competitive, especially when you get access to a whole range of markets. This was backed up by our testing, which saw CMC Markets having the second most competitive Standard account spreads, averaging 1.11 pips across the major currency pairs.

Our Verdict on CMC Markets

When it came to choosing a top broker with a great range of CFD products and low spreads, CMC Markets was an easy pick thanks to a strong catalogue of 10,000+ trading products and spreads from 0.0 pips. You should choose CMC Markets if having the option to trade assets other than forex is crucial to you.

In our tests, FP Markets achieved zero-pip spreads an impressive 97.83% of the time, which is why we recommend the broker for scalpers.

Even when zero spreads aren’t available, FP Markets offers tight RAW spreads, averaging just 0.1 pips on EUR/USD, beating the industry average of 0.22 pips. With access to both MT4 and MT5 platforms, scalpers can take advantage of features like one-click trading and the ladder trading tool to make quick and precise trades.

FP Markets has the lowest ECN spreads

We rated forex broker FP Markets as having the lowest ECN spreads in Canada. For its RAW/ECN style account, FP Markets had an average spread of 0.22 pips across the 5 most traded currency pairs, 2x lower than the industry average. The broker also offers fast execution speeds, the full MetaTrader suite (MT4 + MT5) and access to over 10,000 tradeable instruments (through the IRESS platform).

Key Strengths:

• Lowest ECN style spreads
• Fast execution speeds
• Good range of trading platforms

FP Markets has Canada’s lowest ECN/RAW spreads

Of FP Markets’ two accounts, the broker’s RAW account offers the lowest spreads, based on our testing. The broker’s RAW account averaged 0.22 pips for the top 5 most traded currency pairs against the industry average of 0.45 pips. FP Markets’ Standard account also had similarly competitive spreads, with an average of 1.30 pips against the industry average of 1.52 pips for the top 5 most traded currency pairs.

These low spreads from both accounts combine to make FP Markets our number 1 choice for Canadians choosing a low-spread Forex broker.

FP Markets has the fastest market order speeds

When testing 20 top brokers to determine which had the fastest execution speeds, we found FP Markets ranked the highest in Canada. Our tests were conducted by Ross Collins who used the MT4 platform to test the average execution speed across 20 trades. Having an average market order speed of 96ms, FP Markets had the fastest execution speeds we recorded for a Canadian broker.

We have highlighted how favourably FP Markets compares with other forex brokers for execution speeds in the table below.

Our Verdict on FP Markets

With their low spreads across both trading accounts, coupled with fast market order execution speeds, FP Markets is our top low-spread forex broker in Canada. We also like FP Markets for its unique IRESS platform with access to over 10,000 shares to trade and DMA pricing.

Fusion Markets had the lowest trading fees in our tests, making it the top choice if you want a cheap broker offering decent execution speeds and platforms. With an average spread of just 0.22 pips on EUR/USD for its RAW account, Fusion Markets beats the industry average of 0.49 pips on EUR/USD.

We ranked the broker’s commission as the lowest available, which is $2.25 per lot, making Fusion Markets cheaper than other CIRO-regulated brokers that charge around $7 per lot.

Fusion Markets has Copy Trading with MetaTrader 4

MetaTrader 4 is a popular trading platform used by most brokers, but we like how Fusion Markets offers low spreads and copy trading features with it. You should choose Fusion Markets if you are a beginner and want access to copy trading.

Key Strengths:

• Copy trading is available with MetaTrader 4
• Solid choice of trading products
• High leverage available

MetaTrader 4 with Copy Trading

MetaTrader has plenty of trading tools like Expert Advisors, 30+ technical indicators, one-click trading, and automated trading. However, not all brokers offer copy trading with it and this is where Fusion Markets shines. One of the top copy trading options we like is DupliTrade, where you copy 14 different strategies that are unique from one another.

For example, some strategies focus on short-term technical analysis trades on EUR/USD only, whereas others focus on EUR/JPY swing trades. To trade any of their strategies, you must click Duplicate, which syncs up your MetaTrader 4 account with the strategy.

What we like about DupliTrade is that they document the trades, track record, and how they trade the strategy professionally and transparently – which helps you make a better and more informed decision. DupliTrade even goes into the finer details by showing how many times (on average) the strategy will execute each month, which can help you decide if you want a strategy that trades frequently or not.

Low Trading Costs with tight spreads and low commissions

Fusion Markets have some of the lowest trading costs from our testing, with an average spread of 1.19 pips for its Classic account (3rd best overall) and 0.22 pips for its Zero account (1st overall). This, combined with commissions of CAD$6 per round turn, makes Fusion Markets a low cost broker for Canadian traders.

Fastest Execution Speeds for Canadian Traders

In addition to the lowest trading costs, Fusion Markets have the fasted execution speeds from our testing, with 79 ms for limit orders and 77 ms for market orders. These were the fastest speeds we tested of any Canadian broker, compared with 20 other top brokers using the MT4 platform.

Our Verdict on Fusion Markets

Fusion Markets is an all-around top broker with low trading costs, fast execution speeds and a platform to copy trade on. You should choose Fusion Markets if you want exposure to the forex markets by investing in copy strategies with a track record instead of learning to trade yourself.

Eightcap is our best broker for low-spread trading with cryptocurrency markets. With average spreads as low as 0.06 pips on EUR/USD for RAW accounts, it outperforms the industry average of 0.22 pips. Even its Standard account spreads, averaging one pip on EUR/USD, are lower than the industry average of 1.24.

What also stands out for offering the most extensive range of cryptocurrencies, with over 90+ markets, including popular options like Bitcoin, XRP, and Ethereum.

Eightcap offers Canadian Traders Crypto Markets

Eightcap is one of the few brokers that offer Cryptocurrency markets to Canadian traders and has low spreads. Eightcap offers 80+ cryptocurrencies to trade, along with over 40+ forex pairs and over 400+ shares, allowing you to trade a solid range of products with crypto. If you prefer to trade cryptocurrencies or take on more volatility, then Eightcap is your top choice.

Key Strengths:

• Free third-party Crypto trading trading tools
• Low spreads with fast ECN execution
• Wide choice of popular crypto markets

Eightcap has over 80+ Cryptocurrency Markets to Trade From

You can trade some of the most popular cryptocurrencies available with Eightcap, which has over 80+ crypto markets. So you’ll have a solid choice to trade from, especially with access to popular markets such as Bitcoin, XRP, Ethereum, Solana, and DOGE Coin because these cryptos typically have the highest liquidity (therefore cheaper to trade).

Low ECN-style spreads

If you also want to trade the currency markets, Eightcap offers competitive spreads across both its accounts. Eightcap averages spreads of 1.06 pips (vs the industry average of 1.52 pips) for its Standard account and spreads of 0.3 pips (vs industry average of 0.45 pips) for its RAW account, in terms of published spreads.

We like that Eightcap has a good choice of trading tools to help you develop crypto trading strategies and analysis. Eightcap provides free access to Capitalise.ai, so you can create automated crypto strategies using simple instructions without any code. You can even run a backtest on it to see how it would have performed, so it’s an excellent service to have if you want to automate your strategies.

Our Verdict on Eightcap

Eightcap is a good broker with a decent range of trading products specializing in the crypto markets and provides a top set of tools to help you trade cryptocurrencies. So, if trading any of the popular cryptos is important to you, and you want low spreads, then choosing Eightcap would be a good choice.

In our tests, TMGM averaged just 0.32 pips on EUR/USD, making it one of the tightest spreads available in Canada, coupled with fast execution times.

TMGM’s offering of 12,000+ markets allows you to trade multiple markets with one account, which is excellent if you like to trade different markets throughout the day.

TMGM Allows You to Trade with 1:500 Leverage

If you are an experienced trader and want exposure to higher leverage, then TMGM is your go-to broker. TMGM gives you access to 1:500 leverage, and as a nice bonus, the broker has low spreads. TMGM also offers MetaTrader 4 access and a solid range of trading products. If you are a scalper, combining all of these benefits gives you an excellent trading environment for fast, leveraged trades with low trading costs.

Key Strengths

• Fast execution speeds
• Wide range of trading markets
• High leverage offered to Canadian traders
• Free technical analysis tools

TMGM has trading accounts with low spreads

Of TMGM’s three account types, the broker’s Classic and Edge accounts offer the most competitive spreads.

Our team at CompareForexMarkets tested how long TMGM keep the EDGE account spreads at 0.0 pips throughout the day on average. We found that TMGM does a great job offering the advertised minimum spread of 0.0 pips for 97.53% of the time. So you can take advantage of the tight spreads and low commission.

TMGM’s Standard account, on the other hand, also offers competitive spreads, averaging 1.21 pips across the 6 major currency pairs, putting it in the top 4 from our testing.

The IRESS account is only for the stock market. It provides access to several exchanges through the IRESS ViewPort trading platform. This is an institutional-grade platform just for stocks, with competitive spreads but higher funding costs.

Fast Execution Speeds using MetaTrader 4

Our Chief Technology Researcher, Ross Collins, tested 20 brokers to see which broker provided the fastest execution speeds. In the tests, we found that TMGM produced an execution speed of 94ms on the broker’s limit orders. This placed TMGM in the top five for execution speeds.

TMGM offers High Leverage

Trading with high leverage is difficult in most countries, especially in Canada, where the max is 1:50 imposed by the CIRO. As a broker regulated outside of the CIRO jurisdiction, TMGM gives you access to higher leverage of 500:1 by being regulated by VFSC. The VFSC allows TMGM to accept Canadian traders and provides higher leverage.

Our Verdict on TMGM

Overall, TMGM provides an excellent trading service for traders of all levels. We recommend TMGM for beginners due to the broker’s low spreads and fast execution speeds, and for experienced traders due to high leverage and the ability to use IRESS for underlying shares trading.